A/N: Look, Nell and Eric are back! And Eric seems perfectly fine... Well that's good.

Anyway, I was recently told that I'm far too competitive. Obviously I laughed and challenged said friend to another round of guitar hero... This tournament went on for three hours and the next day, the inspiration for this one-shot appeared!

This one's set in the early days of Nell and Eric's friendship, probably around late season 2.


4 - Zero

"Not a chance," she retorted, shoving the plate of cookies away from herself.

Four hours ago, Eric suggested they go back to his place as they were leaving Ops. Asked if she'd like to play video games and for whatever reason Nell had said yes.

Three hours ago, Nell had insisted that she'd never played Mario Kart and asked Eric to go easy on her.

Two hours ago, Eric began to realise just how competitive his red-headed partner really was.

Now the pair were sitting upside down on Eric's couch, having decided that playing upright was simply too easy. Empty beer bottle and take-out containers littered the floor as both Nell and Eric threw themselves around trying to win the latest round of Mario Kart on the Wii.

The night had been going pretty well, in between races the two had talked about anything and everything; Eric discovered that Nell was huge Sci-Fi fan, could barely swim and missed her family back home terribly.

"Ha! Take that Jones, another point to me." Eric laughed as he tried to sit himself back up.

"I think you'll still find that I'm winning overall though, Beale. Just letting you catch up to even the playing field," Nell laughed as she swung her legs down and pulled herself up again with far more grace than Eric who was currently half on the couch and half on the floor.

"If you say so," the technical operator laughed, standing up and walking over to the small kitchenette.

Curious as to what her partner was doing, Nell moved to follow the taller man to the kitchen, watching as he rummaged around the cupboards.

Eric had just pulled out a plate when he turned around to find his partner sitting on the worktops, smiling at him.

"What?" He asked, seeing the grin in place.

"Nothing, just wondering what you're doing."

"Finding food. I don't really feel like reheating the Chinese."

"O-kay... Why are you staring at me then?"

"I, um, need to get into that cupboard," he said, gesturing to the cabinet behind her.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Nell asked, almost daring her partner.

Feeling bold from the beer earlier, and if she asked, that's what he'd blame his new-found courage on, Eric placed one hand on her hip and reached behind her. Without taking his eyes away from the intelligence analyst, Eric grabbed what he'd been searching for and closed the cupboard. Savouring the moment of being allowed to invade his partner's space, Eric set his other hand down by Nell's side, watching for her to change her mind about allowing him this close.

Instead of pushing him away though Nell seemed to move backwards on the counter and parted her legs, allowing Eric closer, an opportunity that didn't not pass him by.

"Did you get it?" She asked in a whisper, eyes flitting across his face as the corners of her mouth pulled up into a smile.

"What?"

"What you were searching for, did you get it?"

"Oh, yeah." Finally snapping out of whatever spell Eric had been under he took a step back, raising his hand to show Nell the pack of Oreo's he'd been looking for.

Seeing the cookies in her partners hand, Nell jumped down from the counter, "You set up the next round; I'll get the beers, deal?"

Four games later, all won by Nell, Eric threw his remote on to the couch and pushed the small side dish towards Nell who had decided that placing stakes on each game in the form of Oreo's would make things more exciting.

"What are you doing?" She asked, seeing Eric push his small plate of cookies towards her.

"I'm giving them to you, you win, okay? Supreme Mario Kart winner, the title's yours."

"Really? You're calling it quits already?"

"Yes, now will you accept my forfeit?"

"Not a chance," she retorted, shoving the plate of cookies away from herself. "Pick another game; you're not giving up that easily.


A/N2: Any chance of a review? I'd give y'all Oreos in exchange but there'd be too much hassle posting them and I'd more than likely end up eating most of them...